Adamson easily secured a spot in the Final Four with a 25-21, 25-18, 25-15 victory over Arellano in the Shakey’s Super League (SSL) Collegiate Pre-Season Championship quarterfinals held over the weekend at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila.
All players, except for the liberos, contributed to the scoring board in a diversified attack as the Lady Falcons leveraged their win-once bonus to earn a return trip to the semifinals in the SSL.
This competition is sponsored by Mikasa, Eurotel, Victory Liner, Summit Bottle Water, Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken, R and B Milk Tea, Potato Corner, Rebel Sports, Converge ICT Solutions, Genius Sports, and United Auctioneers, Inc.
Adamson, who finished third in the inaugural season, had no trouble replicating their feat, achieving it in just 83 minutes with 13 players contributing to the scoring, led by Rochelle Lalongisip’s eight points.
Ayesha Juegos, Jen Villegas, and Antonette Adolfo chipped in seven points each, while skipper Lucille Almonte had five, and Lorence Toring and Barbie Jamili added five points apiece.
“We’re delighted and grateful that we made it to the semifinals. We’ve rebounded and gave our best as a team. Now, we’ve delivered our best performance,” said Juegos, who earned the Player of the Game honors with five hits and two aces.
The Lady Falcons will face the reigning champion and undefeated National U in the semifinals, who also made quick work of University of the East with a 25-19, 25-21, 25-23 victory in the other quarterfinal match.
Far Eastern University also advanced to the Final Four after defeating Ateneo de Manila University, 25-19, 25-18, 25-18, setting up a knockout semifinal match against either NCAA champion College of St. Benilde or University of Santo Tomas.
St. Benilde forced a deciding game against UST, who had a twice-to-beat advantage, in their quarterfinal duel after a thrilling 25-22, 23-25, 18-25, 25-23, 15-11 win.
The rubber match is scheduled for this Saturday at the same venue to complete the Final Four lineup of SSL Season 2, in cooperation with the Commission on Higher Education and the Philippine Sports Commission.
UE and Arellano, as well as Ateneo against the loser between St. Benilde and UST, will compete in the classification matches for 5th-8th spots before the semifinals and the best-of-three finals.
All SSL Season 2 games are accessible live and on-demand across all platforms through the social media pages of Plus Network and SSL, with Solar Sports, Blast TV, and Aliw Channel 23 as TV partners.
